A West Coaster Becomes High Commissioner

If the newspapers are correct and former premier Gordon Campbell is about to become Canadian High Commissioner to the UK, it will be the first time that a British Columbian has held the post.

That's right. Since 1880 there have been 25 High Commissioners, Canada's ambassador to the United Kingdom, and not one of them has been from this end of the country. The possible exception was Dana Wilgress, who was born in Vancouver and served as High Commissioner 1949-52. But Wilgress was a career diplomat who spent almost all his adult life living abroad or in Ottawa. Campbell, on the other hand, made his life here and so qualifies as the first true west coaster to hold the post.